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Loz Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Past continuous question.
Hi, first post here.
My understanding is that one of the main descriptions of "past continuous" tense is - an action (over time) that happened in the past and that was interrupted by a shorter action.
eg. Bob was sleeping when the alarm woke him. "was sleeping" being in the past continuous form.
In a lesson text dealing with past continuous I have the following sentence which sounds okay but doesn't fit with the rule.
"He was very surprised that Bob was in London and found out that he was starting a new job in the city."
Is this grammatically correct? If not should it be something like
"...... was to start a new job in the city."
Thanks in advance.
Laurie
My understanding is that one of the main descriptions of "past continuous" tense is - an action (over time) that happened in the past and that was interrupted by a shorter action.
eg. Bob was sleeping when the alarm woke him. "was sleeping" being in the past continuous form.
In a lesson text dealing with past continuous I have the following sentence which sounds okay but doesn't fit with the rule.
"He was very surprised that Bob was in London and found out that he was starting a new job in the city."
Is this grammatically correct? If not should it be something like
"...... was to start a new job in the city."
Thanks in advance.
Laurie
Top answer
Loz He was very surprised that Bob was in London and found out that he was starting a new job in the city. Correct. The clause with the past continuous is just the past tense version of ...
- Loz He was very surprised that Bob was in London and found out that he was starting a new job in the city.
- Correct.
- The clause with the past continuous is just the past tense version of ...
- he is starting a new job in the city.
- in which the continuous is used to express the future.
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1 Answers
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LozHe was very surprised that Bob was in London and found out that he was starting a new job in the city.Correct. The clause with the past continuous is just the past tense version of
... he is starting a new job in the city.
in which the continuous is used to express the future.
is starting is shifted into the
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